​Organ

The organ was installed early in 1910 in the frame building erected in 1868 and 1869. Perhaps it was in the rear gallery, but more likely it was in the front of the church. Wind for the organ could be provided by a person using a pump handle on the right side of the organ, but there was also an electric Kinetic blower, probably in the basement, to wind the organ. The prominent organist Lynnwood Farnam played the opening recital on January 25, 1910. When the church was rebuilt in 1914, brick was applied to the original building and the organ was relocated to its present position in an addition on the rear of the outside of the building. “Edward A. Lahaise, 1930” is written on a Gedeckt pipe in the Swell of the organ. Members of the Lahaise family of Quebec did maintenance, and probably installations and some work at the Hook & Hastings factory up until the firm closed in 1936. After the firm closed, the Lahaises continued doing organ maintenance out of Boston & West Roxbury MA into this century. At some point, an organist or maintenance person wanted a Melodia (an 8’ open wood flute), on the Great division of the organ. To accomplish this, the Swell box was enlarged to enclose the Great, except for the facade pipes, in the box with Swell. A wall of wood, presumably matched boards, was installed just behind the façade pipes, and the Swell shades and frame were installed in the roof of the box, so that the sound went mostly up to the ceiling of the chamber. The result must have been dismal. If this was done by the Lahaises, I choose to think they did not approve. Nothing is known of any other changes or maintenance of the organ until 1967 when the Church voted to have John Wessel, a former Estey man, do work on the organ. Mr. Wessel moved the Swell shades “from the top of the box to a more useful position”, where they were originally. Along with some action work, Mr. Wessel also installed a new Meidinger (Swiss) blower inside the organ chamber. Mr. Wessel maintained the organ through at least 1980. The earliest correspondence Andover Organ Co. has on file about the organ is with Rev. Sidney Lambert in 1986. Around that time, Andover took over the maintenance of the organ. For the first decade or so, AOC tuned the organ twice a year, but didn’t make many improvements. In 1995, while Joyce Robinson was the organist, AOC prepared our first proposal to rebuild the organ. After much negotiating over how much could be spent and exactly what to do, a contract was signed in April 1998 for the work to be done in 1999. The main purpose of the 1999 work was to revise the organ tonally to have a more robust and brilliant sound with more variety. The other focus was to rebuild the chest for the manual pipes with a new plywood table, to stabilize the tuning of the organ as the humidity changed seasonally. The work began in April 1999, shortly after Easter, and was completed in the fall, before Advent. Robert C. Newton was the overall director and voicer for the project, assisted mostly by Thomas Turmel, who did the rebuild of the chest and much more. Four stops were prepared for at that time. Two of them, the Nasard and Tierce in the Swell, were installed by Andover in 2015. Two more stops, probably a 2’ Fifteenth and a Quint rank are partially prepared for on the Great. Both sliders and the toeboard are in place, and the sliders and table are drilled for these ranks. The final “pipe dream” would be to relocate the Pedal stop to the right side of the organ, and add an Oboe stop to the back of the Swell. The leather on the reservoir is still the original, so some day it will need to be replaced. Also, the blower, installed in 1967, is doing well, but is only marginally large enough for the organ. Overall, at this time the organ is doing well, and with one or two tuning visits and occasional projects, it will continue for another century and beyond.